The Feasibility and Impact of the EMOVE Intervention on Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectations for Exercise in Epilepsy

Abstract

Epilepsy affects 65 million people worldwide. In the past, people with epilepsy were discouraged from exercising and now many individuals with epilepsy still do not get the amount of exercise needed to benefit them. The purpose of this pilot study was to describe the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the self-efficacy based EMOVE intervention. It was hypothesized that exposure to EMOVE would strengthen self-efficacy and outcome expectations for exercise and increase time spent exercising, improve quality of life, and decrease seizure frequency, symptoms of depression, and body mass index at 3 months following exposure to the intervention. Methods: A single-group repeated measures design was used in 30 adults with epilepsy from an outpatient neurology clinic. Data were collected at baseline and 12 weeks following the intervention. Descriptive data at baseline included age, gender, race, number of anti-epileptic medications, mean number of years living with seizures, and number of co-morbidities. Participant outcome data used in this analysis included Self-Efficacy (SEE-E) and Outcome Expectations for Exercise in Epilepsy (OEE-E), Beck Depression Inventory - II (BDI-II), Quality of Life in Epilepsy - 31 (QOLIE-31), seizure activity, time spent exercising, and body mass index (BMI). Time spent exercising was measured using a wrist-worn activity monitor to record daily number of steps. Repeated measure analyses were done. Results: Thirty participants were recruited into the study. Participants were predominantly single (63%), White (53%), female (63%) with a mean age of 46.7 years (SD=13), range 26 - 68, had low levels of self-efficacy (M=5.10) and outcome expectations (M=2.00), spent little time in physical exercise (M=5958) and had an average of 6 seizures per month. Post intervention there was statistical improvement in the OEE-E (M=2.3, SD=0.45, p<0.05). There was no significant difference between baseline and 12-weeks for other study outcomes. Conclusions: Results of the present study indicate that the EMOVE intervention was feasible and resulted in an increase in outcome expectations associated with exercise. Although there was limited evidence of significance across all outcomes, the trends moved in the expected direction. Future research should focus on strengthening the intensity of this practical real world intervention.